On the Table
by LGCoffeeAddict
Summary: Sixth in the Love Game series. A deep, feminine laugh bubbled out of the ortho resident. “You really think I’m going to gossip about my best friend and your boss?” "We're not asking you to," Izzie insisted. "We're curious about Alex." Dedicated to Juli.


The Love Game: On the Table

The sixth in the Love Game series

A **Grey's Anatomy** fic by Gigi

**Disclaimer: As usual, I really own nothing. But don't worry. I'll tell you the minute that changes.**

**A/N: So a little while ago, I rewatched the crossover episodes from last season, and I usually only watch "Before and After" and "Ex-Life." This time, however, I also watched "An Honest Mistake," and, as I have explained in detail on my profile and to Juli (Darling Pretty—amazing writer whom you should check out), I really loved all the subtle Addison and Alex vibes going on there. This is a different style of writing than I'm used to, so please tell me if I pulled it off. It's based around the title of the song called, "On the Table," by AC Newman.**

**A/N 2: Just FYI, Alex and Izzie are **_**not**_** together in this fic. Izzie can still be hallucinating Denny, if you are really married to that storyline. I, for one, could care less about that ridiculous invention of Shonda's brain, especially since Denny has absolutely nothing to do with this fic. Okay, **_**now**_** you can enjoy!**

**A/N 3: Dedicated to Juli, for being an awesome writer and hilarious conversation partner and for being nice and offering to celebrate with me once I finish my last 250-word college essay.**

The sound of a plastic tray full of unpalatable hospital food dropping onto the metal table, spraying drops of Coke and bits of questionable salad every which way, echoed throughout the moderately crowded outdoor cafeteria of Seattle Grace Hospital. Nobody looked up at the noise, however, because they were used to a certain group of five melodramatic second-year surgical residents creating such a din during lunchtime.

Only three of these residents were at this table on this day, and another one stood in front of the aforementioned tray of Coke and questionable salad. It was quite fortunate that the fifth one was nowhere near this table, for that fifth resident happened to be the subject of a very curious conversation that was soon to be initiated by the standing resident, whose dirty blonde hair was still tied in a bun from the surgery with said fifth intern that had just ended.

"Something's going on with Alex," the standing resident announced, taking her seat in a black metal chair and picking up her fork.

"Well, hello, Meredith," the resident with short, blonde hair and a sarcastically cheerful voice said. "How've our days been? Just great, thanks for asking."

Meredith shot her a look before she resumed her train of thought. "I'm serious, Izzie. I've been working with him all day helping Derek and Addison treat that pregnant lady with the aneurism and all the post-op complications, and he's completely different around her."

"Around who?" the resident, who had mousy brown hair, gentle eyes and looked like he could give a comforting hug wherever needed, queried. "The patient or Dr. Montgomery?"

"George, why do you still call her Dr. Montgomery?" the resident, the only Asian out of the five, with curly black hair and a face that dared anyone to mess with her, pestered. "She's Satan, Bambi."

Meredith hesitated at that. She hadn't heard Addison Forbes Montgomery referred to as "Satan" in almost a year, and now, she wasn't sure if that was exactly a fair nickname. But George, in one of his rare snappy moments, retorted, "I seem to remember us dubbing her 'McHot,' when we had the patient who had spontaneous orgasms. Satan is long gone. Get with the times." Izzie snorted into her drink at her friend's comment.

"George is right, Christina," Izzie supported, shooting George a sideways glance and adding, "Except I don't remember naming Addison McHot. I just say Dr. Montgomery."

"Well, it was only me, Alex and Christina," George admitted.

"Hey, if _I_ remember correctly, only you and Evil Spawn came up with that gem," Christina corrected. "I wondered what the hell McDreamy and McSteamy saw in her."

"Okay, seriously, whatever nickname you have for my boyfriend's ex-wife really isn't the point," Meredith piped up, thoroughly frustrated with her friends' tendencies toward ADD. "The point is that Alex acts a _lot_ differently when he's around or even talking about Addison."

"So?" Christina waved it off and resumed eating her pizza.

Izzie, ever the curious cat—especially when it came to her ex-boyfriend's love life—, leaned forward and pressed Meredith for more information. "How so?"

"Well, he defends her, for one," Meredith prefaced. "He and I have sort of degenerated into a My-Guy-versus-Your-Guy contest concerning Addison and Derek."

"He calls Addison his guy?" Christina chimed in, surprised. "I would comment on the obvious sexism of that statement if it wasn't so weird."

"I think it's cute," Izzie reflected. "I wonder what happened to make him comfortable enough to get into a mine-is-bigger-than-yours game with you." Silently, Izzie appreciated Alex's absence from the table, because she knew he would just make some lewd comment about the sexual implications her last statement could have held. Well, that and the fact that they were talking about _him_.

"What happened?" George repeated in confusion.

"Yeah, like what prompted his sudden need to defend her," Izzie clarified dreamily, looking off into the distance and imagining scenario after scenario. "Like, what if…" She set to explaining a possible encounter between the two doctors to the other three residents.

**8D**

"_Dr. Bailey's with Addison, today, so I'll be giving you your assignments," Seattle Grace's Chief of Surgery, Dr. Richard Webber, declared._

"_Addison's in the hospital?" Meredith, who stood with the other residents except for Izzie, asked him._

"_Her brother was admitted last night, with parasites in his brain," he informed her._

_Meredith's eyes widened as she inquired incredulously, "Addison's brother has neurocysticercosis?" _

_Instead of answering, the Chief stepped away from them and called down the hall to the group of interns standing with Izzie. "See? That's what I'm talking about!" He pointed to Meredith at that and, after giving out the assignments, made his way down toward his office._

_Alex rolled his eyes and started walking away, whispering "Golden child," in Meredith's ear teasingly as he passed her. As soon as he was out of sight of the residents and for reasons unknown to even himself, he power-walked to the nearest nurses' station and waited for one of the computers to free up so that he could look up Addison's brother's room number. Once he'd memorized the wing and number, he started for the coffee cart._

_With a drink carrier containing three fresh cups of coffee in hand—he'd heard someone mention that Addison's best friend had accompanied her to Seattle—, Alex tentatively trod toward the three women standing and staring into a patient's room at a man who was barely conscious and intubated. As he approached them, he tried not to be discouraged by the obvious surprise on all three women's faces at the sight of him. He realized he hadn't come up with any sort of explanation as to why he was there, not that he really _knew_ what he was doing there. "Uh, the Chief told me you were here," he scrambled, nodding toward the tall redhead. _She cut her hair,_ he observed. "He sent me up here with coffee so you all can, you know, function." With that, he thrust the tray towards them, somewhat mortified._

_Bailey looked suspicious, but accepted the coffee without any qualms. The other black woman nodded and softly thanked him as she reached for a cup. Meanwhile, Addison cocked her head to the side and fixed upon him her gently scrutinizing, clear blue stare. "Are you okay, Karev?" she asked. "You used to grumble when Mark made you go for coffee runs."_

"_Yeah, well, at least the Chief didn't dangle the possibility of surgery on a stick in front of me to get me to do it," Alex shrugged off, chuckling nervously in a way that he never did._

_Addison shared in his quiet laughter and allowed her lips to quirk upward until the woman Alex didn't recognize cleared her throat significantly. "Oh, sorry," Addison apologized. "Karev, this is Dr. Naomi Bennett, the fertility specialist at my practice down in LA and one of my closest friends. Naomi, this is Dr. Alex Karev. He used to be my intern."_

"_Nice to meet you," Alex greeted. _

"_Likewise," Naomi nodded once again. She looked to her companion. "_Your_ intern?"_

"_Yeah, Karev was a very…self-assertive intern who happened to push my buttons one too many times," Addison explained with a fond smile. "He hated obstetrics, and so he did everything he could to get off my case. In return, I had him assigned to my service."_

"_Which was probably the smartest idea you had," Bailey amended. "Karev not only mellowed out, but he's the go-to resident in his year for OB/GYN or neonatal cases."_

_Bailey's comment drew Addison's attention back to the resident in question. Her eyebrows shot up as she addressed him, "Really?"_

_Alex didn't know why, but he suddenly found himself blushing and finding anything but the women infinitely fascinating. "Yeah, well, after a while I stopped hating it, and I had a great teacher," he murmured shyly. _

_There was silence following his statement, and he looked up to see very different expressions. Bailey looked confused, with her lips slightly apart and her eyebrows furrowed. Naomi, who didn't really know too much about the situation other than what had been said in the past five minutes, looked mildly interested, with her head tilted to the side in a fashion very much like her best friend. Addison…he couldn't really read her face. Her lips were pressed together—hopefully suppressing a smile—and her eyes swam with a hundred different emotions, none of which could Alex identify. She looked...touched._

_Alex coughed and broke the eye contact he and Addison shared momentarily, making up a fake patient he needed to check on so that he could escape a situation that was becoming more and more awkward with every passing syllable. Before he turned around, however, Alex caught Addison's eye again. "Dr. Montgomery, if you need anything, feel free to page me," he offered. When she nodded in acceptance, he rounded a corner and stopped to take a breath._

_What the hell _was_ that?_

**8D**

"That's cute, but it doesn't make sense in the grand scheme of things," Meredith pointed out while Christina mimed gagging. "That just makes it seem like he has a crush on her, or something, like he has no idea what's going on. Alex isn't the kind of guy who gets crushes. Besides, he was updating charts with me after we talked to the Chief."

"And that wouldn't explain why he defended her to Meredith," George added.

Christina pointed to George with her fork and said, "Bambi's got a point. It wouldn't hold up in court."

Izzie held up her hands in mock surrender. "Sorry, it was just an idea," she explained. "Meredith, what else is different about Alex? Maybe we can get farther along if we know more."

"Well, when Derek and I were in the surgery on Addison's brother, it was like Alex was automatically the one to take over," Meredith recalled.

"Yeah, it was that way the last tame she came up here for a consult, too," George noted.

Izzie straightened in her seat as she remembered the events from the previous day. "That's true. During the contest, all of us—well, except for you, Christina—were in Jen's room while Sadie tried to give her an ultrasound. Sadie couldn't find the heartbeat, and Alex knew exactly why. He found the heartbeat almost immediately when he took over. He couldn't have done that without a lot of practice."

"Yeah, he actually sounded like a teacher when he did that," Meredith agreed. "That was _definitely_ a first."

Before the four had the chance to speculate any further, Callie Torres, the fifth-year orthopedic resident, approached the table. "Hey, has anyone seen Dr. Montgomery?" she asked. The residents all shared a knowing look. "What?"

"I'll bet Alex has seen her," Christina mumbled under her breath, just loudly enough for Callie's ears to catch it.

"Excuse me?" The Hispanic woman took in the seated doctors' slightly guilty expressions of having just been interrupted talking about something they shouldn't be discussing. Somewhere in the back of her mind, an alarm bell went off. There was no way Christina could be talking about a kiss Addison and Alex shared in Joe's bar a year ago. There was no way she could _know_. "What's going on?"

After a moment of silence, Christina once again stepped up. "We're wondering what the hell is going on between them." That earned her three sets of indignant eyes focusing in on her.

Izzie sighed. "Well, now that the cat's out of the bag, do you have any insights?" she directed toward Callie, completely forgetting that they weren't exactly the closest of friends.

A deep, guttural, yet feminine laugh bubbled out of the ortho resident. "You really think I'm going to gossip about my best friend and your boss?"

"We're not asking you to," Izzie insisted. "God knows, with Archer and the thing with Jen and Derek, she's got enough on her plate to deal with, without adding in any romantic drama. No, we're curious about Alex."

"What about him?"

"According to Meredith, he's acting all weird when he's around her or talking about her," Christina answered in a bored voice.

"Hmm, he is a little different, now that you mention it," Callie commented, staring into space. "He's calling her Addison, now. Or, at least he did when he told me she was here." Snapping back into herself before she actually said something that would make Addison kill her, she excused herself and continued her search to find a certain redhead, leaving behind a set of pensive residents.

"He's calling her Addison now?" George repeated, almost reeling from that tidbit his ex-wife let slip.

Meredith nodded, thinking of that morning. "Yeah, he is."

"Since when are they on a first-name basis?" Christina prompted.

"So they had to have had something before she came up this time," Izzie reasoned. "But were they just friendly before? Are they just friends now? Was there something romantic when she came up last time? Or even before that? Or did something happen this time?"

"Slow down," George ordered softly. "Don't forget to breathe amid all your questions."

"If something happened this time, it would have had to have happened really soon after she got here," Meredith indicated logically, "as in, before Alex told Callie that Addison was here."

**8D**

_Alex was on his way to talk to Shepherd and Meredith's patient and tell her that her surgery had to be pushed back when he saw a familiar redhead through the window into the NICU. Opening the door, he called out softly, "Dr. Montgomery?"_

_Addison, who was leaning over a small baby girl and stroking her forehead, straightened and looked over her shoulder, smiling tiredly. "Hello, Karev," she responded._

"_Are you okay?" he asked, stepping into the room and slowly making his way toward her._

_Addison sighed and turned back to the baby. She rested her head on one hand while she continued stroking the little girl with the other. "My brother might die," she declared sadly. "It's hard to be okay when he's refusing surgery and Derek's saying he can't operate."_

_Hesitantly, Alex stood beside her, a mere foot away from her, hoping having someone to talk to could help calm her down. She was, after all, near babies. She needed to stay calm so she didn't freak out and do something irrational. _

_Okay, he knew that wasn't fair. It was _Addison_, after all. But the debacle with Rebecca kept replaying in his head._

"_Is there any chance he could survive without the surgery?" he questioned quietly._

_Addison shook his head, squeezing her eyes shut to forestall the tears that threatened to fall. "Derek is trying to find a way to operate, but he needs that surgery," she told him. Her voice wavered slightly. "And even then, there's a large chance he won't survive."_

_On a random impulse, Alex placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You know you can't think like that," he urged. "Even if there's a large chance he won't survive whatever surgery Shepherd manages to cook up, there's still a chance that he _will_."_

"_I know that," Addison sniffled. She was losing the fight to contain her tears. Alex didn't know when it became appropriate to do such a thing to his former boss with whom he may or may not have had a thing in the past, but he tugged on the shoulder his hand held and brought her into him, letting her cry into his scrubs while he simply wrapped his arms around her frame. Addison sobbed into his shoulder, having to hunch over a little bit since she was in heels and was therefore as tall as him, and every now and again, she would whisper, "I know that."_

"_Hey," he breathed after a few minutes, losing his own internal battle—though his was one over butterflies instead of tears. He pulled back from the hug and looked her straight in her bleary, tear-soaked eyes. "Just for a second, I want you to forget about all the things that could go wrong with your brother. Forget about all of that and focus on something else. Anything else."_

"_Like what?" she muttered dejectedly._

_Alex looked around, and his eyes alighted on the baby in the isolate next to them. "Like the babies. That's why you came in here in the first place, right? To calm down, gather your thoughts, while you watched newborns sleep in all innocence, completely ignorant to the difficulties they might have later on?"_

_Addison nodded slowly in surprise. "How did you know that?"_

"_I noticed that you did that a lot when you still worked here," he admitted with a shrug. "I understand why you always came here. It's peaceful, watching babies sleep. It's calming. I've started to come here, too."_

_Addison seemed to be at a loss for words. Her tears had dried, leaving behind no remnants but for flushed cheeks and slight differences in color where the salty beads had removed her makeup. "I, uh, I didn't know you saw me come up here," she stammered._

"_I saw you," he assured. "I saw you all the time." His voice had dropped to a whisper, and as he started leaning in closer he said one last thing: "Ever since you left, I've been spending a lot more time in the NICU."_

_Their lips touched. Addison couldn't remember when she closed her eyes or when she started to lean in, but nonetheless, their lips touched. It was fleeting, and whether or not it was meant to comfort her or confess something else, neither could say quite yet, but it was there. Their lips touched._

**8D**

"Aw, that would be _so_ romantic if that happened!" Izzie exclaimed. She looked to Christina and was no doubt, waiting for the sarcastic remark, when she saw the Asian woman's brown eyes fog up a tiny bit. "You even managed to prove that Christina's human, Mer."

"Shut up, Barbie," Christina mumbled.

"It is a nice thought, but it couldn't have happened," George denied. "I was in the NICU following around the interns for Izzie's game."

Stumped again.

"Derek told me that when Addison was running the Doppler on Jen's baby that her husband started yelling at Addison about how Jen was fine before they came to the hospital," Meredith stated a few minutes into the silence, poking into her salad as if they were talking about what was on television last night. "Derek said that Addison glanced over to where he and Alex were standing and sort of silently pleaded one of them to calm him down so she could concentrate on the exam."

"And?" Christina pushed. Despite herself, she was starting to get really interested in how this investigation turned out.

"And Derek could have been the one to calm him down—and for all intents and purposes, he _should_ have been—but Alex stepped in and stood up for Addison. Derek didn't think anything of it, but it still struck me as odd," Meredith said. "And apparently, Addison and Alex fell right back into being teacher and student after that."

"So that nixes any idea of something happening this time," Izzie pouted. "If it had, Derek definitely would have commented on the awkwardness."

"So maybe they got together last time she consulted?" George suggested, but Izzie shook her head.

"That was when Ava—Rebecca—thought she was pregnant," Izzie declared. "Although, I did see how awkward it was when they saw each other again last time. I was at the nurses' station, and when she came out of the elevator, her mouth dropped when she realized Alex was going to be assisting her again."

"So?" Christina felt like she'd been asking that a lot.

"I don't know. It was just really awkward. She hugged him, and they were both really stiff. Then when they actually started to talk normally, Rebecca came out of the elevator, and when Addison saw her, her face fell," Izzie contemplated. "He looked really pissed at Rebecca when Addison walked away."

"So you're saying that something happened between them when she still worked here?" Meredith followed up. Izzie nodded affirmatively. "But that was a year ago. Why is Alex acting all weird _now_?"

"Maybe something _did_ happen this time, just not for the first time," George speculated.

**8D**

"_Thank you, Dr. Karev, for helping me out in there," Addison recognized once she, Derek and Alex exited Jen's room._

"_I'm going to go get some coffee," Derek announced. "Karev, you'll take care of the labs?" He waited for Alex's affirmative nod to turn around and leave the two of them alone in the hallway._

"_It was no problem," Alex shrugged. "Just figured I'd lend a hand."_

_Addison smiled and started walking while she talked. Alex followed her. "I still appreciate it," she insisted. "You've come a long way, Karev."_

"_I'm just glad I still get to learn from you, given, you know, everything that's happened," Alex mentioned._

_Her smile faltered a little bit at the hinting of what happened a year ago, but she took it in stride. Waving it off, she set the chart on the counter of the nurses' station and reached over the ledge to pick up a lab order form. As she took a pen out of Alex's lab coat pocket and started filling out the form, she smirked to herself. "Don't think I didn't feel your eyes on my ass while I was bent over," she warned._

_Alex grinned unapologetically. "Well, it was right there in front of me," he excused, earning himself a chuckle and a playful slap on the arm. "Hey, it's your fault for having a nice one."_

"_I wouldn't consider that a fault," Addison retorted, eyeing Alex sideways, "and neither did you."_

_Catching the subtle reference to a year ago, Alex stepped a little bit closer. "Well, if it _is_ a fault, I really like your flaws," he whispered huskily._

_Coughing to herself, Addison signed the form with a flourish and handed it to the nurse to have it delivered to the lab. Without even checking to see if Alex was following her, she walked into the nearest on-call room and waited to hear the telltale clicking of the lock before turning around and finding herself not two inches from Alex's face. "So you like my flaws, huh?" she exhaled._

_Alex's only answer was to crash his lips down on hers and push the fitted jacket off Addison's perfect shoulders._

**8D**

"Wow, George, I didn't know you had it in you," Christina commented, all pretense of disinterest gone. "Your story actually makes sense. Color me impressed."

"Any more interesting observations, Mer?" Izzie pressed. "Does George's idea hold water?"

Meredith thought for a few seconds. "The last big thing that I noticed was during surgery when Derek and Addison started yelling at each other. After a little while, she ordered, 'Karev, go!' and he knew exactly what she meant, even though I hadn't seen them discuss anything beforehand," she said. That still confused her, the way they didn't even have to speak to understand one another.

"Okay," Christina said slowly. "So it probably wasn't just blind lust like in Bambi's story. Do you think they might have actually…felt something for each other?"

"I would hope so," Izzie remarked. "I'd hate to think that Alex is still the man whore who cheated on me."

In a rare incidence of compassion and insight, Christina added, "I don't think he is that person anymore. I think it's sort of a combination of all your ideas. Maybe they were friends first, and then had something later. It would explain how much they understand each other, all the moments where he stands up for her, the familiarity between them. And if they were friends first and whatever happened between them before burned out, they'd be able to stay professional and friendly when she came back this time, a year after the fact. The dust would have had time to settle down in a year, so the awkwardness that was there when she first came back wouldn't be there anymore."

**8D**

"Addison?" Callie called out as she ducked into the attendings' locker room. "Addison, are you in here?"

"I'm right here," she announced her presence. Callie looked to the right, and she saw the redhead bending over to the side as she towel-dried her hair, her face clean of any makeup. "What's up?"

"The residents are gossiping about you," the Hispanic woman declared, noting the small smile gracing Addison's face.

Addison straightened and wrapped her head in the towel. "Really?" she asked. "What about me? Why?" She squatted down to root through her clothes to find her crocs. She very well couldn't wear three-inch stilettos with her scrubs, and she couldn't wear her normal clothes when, after being worn for three very stressful days, they started to smell less than fragrant.

"They're trying to guess whether or not you and Alex slept together," Callie reported nonchalantly, picking up a random tennis ball from Derek's locker and holding it up to the light. A clatter coming from the floor made Callie's head whip from scrutinizing the tennis ball to analyzing the sight before her.

The shoes, which Addison had just located, lay on the floor directly below her open hand, but her face was kept carefully smooth. "Sorry, slipped," she pardoned before she tucked a strand of short red hair that escaped the towel behind her ear and grabbed the crocs. "Where did this come from?" she questioned, backing up and straightening enough so she could sit on the bench and put on her socks and shoes.

"Apparently, your ex-husband's little twelve-year-old noted some odd behavior in your ex…thing, while she worked with him on your ex-husband and your case." This time, Callie feigned the disinterest in her voice while she studied her best friend, who simply shrugged and continued to put on her socks.

"Those people need to get a television," she commented.

"But is there any truth to what they think?" No answer was needed, however, for out of the bathroom, in nothing but a white towel around his waist and beads of water dripping down his chest, walked none other than the fifth resident himself, Dr. Alex Karev, bearing quite the self-satisfied smirk.

That smirk slid off his face when he saw there was more than one woman in the room. "Dr. Torres," he greeted awkwardly, "what are you doing here?"

Callie's eyes, which had significantly widened, swung to catch Addison's guilty expression. "Care to explain?" she prompted in a strangled voice.

**8D**

_As Addison walked out of the scrub room after the showdown in the OR with her ex-husband, she slid off her scrub cap. Alex stood just inside the doorway when a code team rushed past them both, causing her to jump backwards and stumble into his arms, dropping her scrub cap in the process._

"_Sorry, Karev," she apologized, avoiding eye contact and refusing to turn around and face the resident. After three days of professionalism, stolen glances, friendly conversations, awkward run-ins and electric currents whenever their hands touched in surgery, Addison was nearly at her wit's end with this man. She'd already had to face her demons with Derek, but she couldn't handle digging up whatever she had with her intern a year ago on top of all that. Flustered, she continued walking to the attendings' locker room, wanting to get in the shower as soon as possible and wash that horrible scene in surgery off of her. _

_Alex didn't even have the chance to mumble that it was fine, that he didn't mind that she was momentarily pressed up against him. Sighing, he looked down at his feet and noticed her white and blue scrub cap lying on his feet. In her frustration, she'd forgotten she had dropped it. Sensing a golden opportunity, Alex bent down, snatched up the scrub cap and started after his former boss, who had literally disappeared from sight she was going so fast._

_When Alex pushed open the door to the attendings' locker room, he found it completely devoid of people, motion or sound. Well, completely devoid of people or motion, due to a faint hiss of a showerhead running. He really didn't pay attention to the fact that he was walking toward the showers or that her scrubs were laying on a bench in the middle of the room. He really wasn't all that aware of what he was doing until he was standing in front of a particular shower unit, holding open the curtain._

_Addison was in the middle of shampooing her partially sheared crimson locks when the whistle of the shower curtain rings moving caught her attention. Her eyes snapped open, and without any forethought, she whipped around to see who the intruder was, which was probably the stupidest thing she could have done considering her current state of undress. _

"_Karev!" she exclaimed, failing to cover herself in her state of surprise. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"_

_Alex couldn't keep his eyes from raking over not only the perfect body, but also the perfect body that happened to be streaming with hot flows of water. "You, uh, dropped your scrub cap," he stammered out distractedly. _

"_And it didn't occur to you when you heard the shower running simply to call out and tell me you were dropping off my scrub cap on the bench before ripping open the shower curtain?" she demanded. She placed her hands on her hips in the fashion very characteristic of pissed off women who should _not_ be messed with and fixed Alex with a stare that could turn anyone not completely consumed by hormones—_let's face it_, he thought to himself. _Who _wouldn't_ be completely consumed by their hormones at seeing this?_ —to stone. _

_For once, Alex had no snappy comeback, but neither did he have anything sentimental or touching to say. Instead, he dropped the scrub cap at his feet and stepped into the shower, completely disregarding the fact that he was still fully dressed._

"_What are you doing?" Addison asked as he stepped closer and closer._

_Alex locked eyes with her and brought his hand up to hold her head at the nape of her neck, tilting her head up to him and whispering, "This." He closed the distance between their faces and let his lips collide with hers in a heated, passionate, desire-filled kiss._

_His hand slid down her body and pressed her flush against him while hers began working on the soggy scrub top clinging to his chest. _

**8D**

"Okay, okay," Callie halted the story, holding up her hands. "I don't need to hear the gory details."

Addison shrugged, blushing heavily while she looked back at the man who still stood in a towel in the middle of the locker room. "You asked," she insisted.

Callie noticed the way Alex still gave the sitting Addison lust-filled glances. "Okay, stop that," she ordered.

"Stop what?" Alex ripped his eyes away from the redhead long enough to say.

"Stop undressing my best friend with your eyes," Callie instructed. She turned to Addison, who she realized was doing just the same thing. "Hey," she whacked her on the arm, "that goes for you, too."

"Sorry," the two doctors said.

"Okay, so I'm going to leave now," Callie announced. "And try to wipe the image of Karev naked from my brain before there's permanent damage," she muttered under her breath.

Pausing at the door, Callie turned around and speculatively beheld her best friend. "Huh," she sighed.

"What?" Addison asked.

"Looks like the residents weren't too far off," she observed and walked out, leaving behind two _very_ happy surgeons.

**A/N: So what do you think? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this was a whopping 5, 294 words. I really hope you appreciated this, for two reasons. One, because it's the longest single thing I've ever written. Two, because it took me the better of two days to write this, and I received horrible news during this process, and the only way I could distract myself was to keep writing. So I really hope you liked this, because I'm ridiculously proud of this story. So please, **_**please**_** tell me what you thought about it. You know how to do that? REVIEW.**


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